Conservation Friendly Updos: The Art of Making Wigs

One of the real success stories from the Wedding Dresses exhibition has been the development of a series of conservation and travel friendly wigs. While the sheer volume of the dresses provided our greatest challenge, a secondary problem was that of how to mount and travel the accompanying veils, hats and head pieces which were integral to the bridal ensembles.

We felt it was vital that we should display the veils in context, and as a result, we began to explore methods of making conservation friendly wigs which would assist in the interpretation of the objects, while not being so showy as to detract from the objects.

The method devised, involved using milliners crinoline, or crin, a nylon mesh traditionally used for making hats and trims, which can be heat set into curls using a hot air gun, or stitched to create hair-like waves.

The above three images show the process of wig making, from skullcap base to heat set curls.

The crin was stitched onto a skullcap base which was reinforced with Rigiline strips. This strong internal support was then used to hook the wigs onto brass clips attached to the mannequin heads.

As you can see from the images, the wigs became a vital addition to the mannequins, and the understanding of how these veils would have been worn originally.

Aside from their use for helping interpret the veils and headdresses, we soon discovered that the wigs could serve a secondary function, as the crin can so easily be stitched into.

With this in mind, we decided to stitch the majority of the veils to the wigs, and were therefore able to reduce the handling of the veils by using the wigs as both handling and the packing mounts.

I work as a Costume Mounting Specialist in the Textile Conservation Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum. I spent the whole of 2009 preparing the first phase of Wedding Dress for its international tour and have since followed the show around the world.

Here Come the Brides

3 May 2014 – 15 March 2015Wedding Dresses 1775-2014 had a long journey to arrive at the V&A, having already travelled 46,425 miles, to four international venues - where it was seen by 240,000 people. Here we highlight some of the exciting things that go on behind the scenes in the run up to a major fashion exhibition.

The exhibition showcases around 70 wedding outfits and numerous accessories. Contempory highlights include loans from Dita von Teese, and Gwen Stefani; while stunning examples from the V&A collection, such as garments by designers Charles Frederick Worth, Norman Hartnell, and Christian Lacroix, demonstrate the facinating history of wedding attire, while also allowing a glimpse into the lives of the wearers.